space of the ether or whatever
you want to call it, but nevertheless he never got over being saved. I was blind, but now I see. He was a notorious sinner. At the end of his life he said,
there are two things that I know. I'm very confident I'm a very
great sinner. after a life of wickedness. If I ever get to heaven, Jesus
will never hear the end of it. He'll never hear the end of it.
I'll never stop praising him. And that's whatever this is.
I just wanted to turn to Isaiah Chapter 29. We've looked at something
of the context of it. It's a pronouncement of of woe. It's a declaration of God's judicial
darkening of those people because of their rebellion against him.
But in the midst of it is this Glorious, glorious picture of
God's salvation and I wanted us to spend a little bit of time
looking at these verses in verses 18 and 19. And it's in that day,
speaking about the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, the day of
the revelation of his character, the revelation of how he saved
sinners. the revelation of his coming
and it was a day that the Jews had set themselves and their
whole nation to be prepared for. In Malachi the Old Testament
finishes, the Lord's going to suddenly come to his temple and
the sun of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings.
And so they were preparing themselves and they're preparing the temple.
Herod has spent 40 odd years building it and rebuilding it,
and he spent the next 20 years after the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ getting it finished and finally getting it all polished.
It's like the big synagogue in Sydney, you know, he's coming
soon. I'm very, very sorry, you're
a long, long way too late. But listen to this, out of the
depths of darkness and the darkness deepening, The light of the gospel
and the light of the glory of the light of the world who comes
to open the eyes of his bride to see him in his glory and to
worship him shines more brightly. As the darkness deepens, the
light shines more brightly. Verse 18 of Isaiah chapter 29. In that day, shall the deaf hear the words
of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity
and out of darkness. The meek shall increase their
joy And the poor among men shall
rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. And I want to remind you that
in Acts chapter 2 and 3, the Holy One is the description that
the Holy Spirit put on the lips of the apostles to describe the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is His day, this day. And go down to verse 23, and
when he seeth his children, our Saviour is the Father. Mighty
God, almighty God, isn't he? Father, Prince of Peace, says
Isaiah chapter nine. When he seeth his children, the
work of thine hands, all of his children are the work of his
hands. In the midst of him, They shall sanctify my name and sanctify
the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear, shall reverence, shall
worship the God of Israel. They'll set apart his name as
holy. And the New Testament Church
began with that declaration in Acts chapter 2. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. To call on his
name, to call is to be in need. To call on his name is to know
the one you're calling on. His name is a reference to all
of his character. But wonderfully his character
is revealed in the work that he does in the hearts of his
people. And that's what exactly happened
in John chapter 9. And listen to what verse 24 of
Isaiah 29 says, And they that erred in spirit shall come to
understanding. Have you heard in spirit? Dear,
oh dear, if you had a catalog of the things that I had thought
I understood and thought I believed over this last too many years
now, I'm just so thankful that God makes a shall promise, isn't
it? He will teach his people, they will come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, he will guide his people into the truth. They that are
earthy in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that
are murmured shall learn doctrine. They will accept instruction. They will, like the blind man
in John 9, they will come to an understanding of who the Lord
Jesus Christ is. And you know when you've come
to an understanding of him. when you declare him to be the
Son of God, and you believe in him as he is, and you worship,
you bow before him. So he speaks of this day, the
day of the Lord, the day when promises are brought to pass,
when God comes in revelation of himself. In the scriptures
this day is called a day of salvation. It's called a day of humiliation
of the proud, the loftiness of man shall be brought down. It's the day of exaltation of
the Lord, Isaiah chapter 2. It can be described as a day
of darkness and not light. For those meeting John chapter
9, it was a day of darkness. For the blind man, it was a day
of light. It's called, in other places,
a day of deliverance. And when the people of Israel
are delivered, there's a song that's sung. God's people are
rejoicing people and singing people. It's a day of power and
revelation. It's His day, isn't it? Abraham,
in John chapter eight, rejoiced. Abraham from 2,000 years before
in Hebrews saw the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw his
day, which means he saw him in his glory. He saw him in his
substitutionary atonement. He saw him in his character.
Abraham saw my day. He saw it and he rejoiced. And these people in John 9 have
nothing but murder in their hearts when he declares that I am God.
I am God before Abraham. And so this day is a day of mercy
and a day of grace. And in John 9 the Lord came and
he saw and he had mercy. But there's a particular group
of people that he has mercy to, and there are four descriptions
of them here. There are two physical descriptions of what would be
seen as bodily activities, but in fact they're spiritual descriptions.
And then there are two descriptions of the work of the Lord in the
hearts of his people. They are the deaf and the blind,
the meek and the poor. I trust that's how you find yourself,
brothers and sisters, because this is what the Lord does in
the hearts of all of these people. These promises are made to the
deaf. What will the deaf do? There's a promise made, isn't
there? The deaf shall hear the words of God. The deaf shall
hear the words of the book. In that day, when the Lord reveals
Himself, they will actually hear the words of this book, and the
words of this book will have a meaning that they never ever
heard before. They were deaf to them. They
were deaf. Those Jews in Jerusalem, like
so many others and all of us in our day when we come into
this world, we are deaf to the callings of God. We are deaf.
to the Word of God. We are deaf to providences, we're
deaf to promises, we're deaf to warnings, we're deaf to hear
that the voice that we think is preaching peace to us is actually
the voice of Satan preaching peace to his people. The deaf
shall hear. As I said earlier, every time
I read Shell, there was an old lady A pastor went to see her
at the end of her life and she had T and P written all over
her Bible in the margin of her Bible. They said, what have you
got that written there for? She said, tried and proved. Tried and proved, all the promises
of God are yay and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you read
a shall, you ought to say just done, tick the box, it's done.
God is doing this in the hearts of his people. The deaf shall
hear the words of the book. And what's the book say? What
does the book say? The book says Jesus Christ and
him crucified. The words of this book are closed
words to any who don't have the gospel. again because I find this such
a challenging and serious, serious verse. But in 1 Peter 1, how
do you get to be born again? How do you get to have this new
life? How do you get to know that you're
deaf? Because until the Lord makes you know you're deaf, you
don't know you're deaf. Is it being born again, 1 Peter
1.23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
seed, says the Lord Jesus Christ, being born again of his work
in your heart, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. For all flesh is grass. Grass doesn't hear anything at
all. and all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth
forever. The word of the Lord endureth
for ever. How do you get to hear this word?
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Where there is no gospel, there
is no word from God. There is no word from God and
people are deaf to that until the Lord causes them to know
their deafness and causes them to hear. They shall hear. They shall hear. What were Israel's
first words when God thundered from Mount Sinai? The very first
words out of Israel's mouth is, we need a mediator. Someone has
to stand between us and God. We need someone to stand there
and be our intercessor. We need someone to be there as
our substitute. God is holy. God is awesome. God is absolutely sovereign in
all that he does, and God is glorified in all that he does.
Have you felt your deafness? I do continually. Like Samuel. Like Samuel in the tabernacle. The Lord has spoken to him twice.
Lord, speak to me. It's your servant here. Just
speak to me and I will hear. Lord, speak. I do love the Song
of Solomon. If you want to embrace a glorious
picture of the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and his
bride and the interactions between them in this world and read Song
of Solomon and it finishes after so many ups and downs, so many
ins and outs, so many times when she didn't hear, so many times
when she acted in terrible rebellion against one who loved her and
had given her absolutely everything. She's a picture of us, brothers
and sisters. She was so ungrateful. At the
end of it, she's coming up out of the wilderness, she's leaning
on her beloved. And at the very end of Song of
Solomon, she says, until you cause me to hear. Only when we really hear and
only when we're born again do we know that we were deaf. They'll
hear the words of God. That's what happened to Saul
of Tarsus. He's a pattern according to 1
Timothy 1. He's a pattern of all those who'll
believe to salvation. And he heard a voice and a light
came at the same time. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
light of this world, and the light blinded him, and the voice
put him in the dark. And the very first words that
came out of this extraordinarily knowledgeable theologian, this
man that lives so righteously, he could say, according to the
law of God, in our pharisaical understanding, I've kept it perfectly.
What a remarkable statement for a guy to make. And he was being
genuine. His very first words when light
and the word of God came to him was, who are you? Who are you? I've been studying this book
all my life and I haven't got a clue who you are. The deaf
now hear. the eyes of the blind the deaf
shall hear the words of this book the deaf shall hear God
speak through his gospel preached from his word the eyes of the
blind this is the day of the lord the day of salvation the
day of his glory the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity
and they shall see out of darkness. That's a strange way to think
about it, isn't it? It's a strange way for God to declare what it
is for those who see. How often, brothers and sisters
in Christ, do you find yourself longing to see with the joy and
peace of belief He's come and opened your eyes
to see Him in His glory. We just get glimpses of it. And
He creates a hunger and a thirst for more, to see Him again. We see out of obscurity. We don't
see as clearly as we'd like to see. We see through a glass darkly. And so often the path of the
Lord Jesus Christ's people in this world is a path where so
often they see more of the darkness that surrounds them than they
see the light. And that's why I do love verses like the ones
in Isaiah chapter 50. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord? That's a testimony from God about
that. And obeys the voice of his servant
and that walketh in darkness. And that darkness means he has
no shining light anymore. How long, how many times, how
much of our life is spent where we long for God to shine more
clearly. We long to walk in faith for
that shining light. Listen to what he says. He has
no shining light. It's the darkness that is a darkness
that's revealed by having seen him in his glory. Let him trust
in the name of his Lord. Let him trust. You just keep
trusting he's saying. You keep trusting in the name
of the Lord and you stay, you remain upon God. Behold all you
that kindle a fire. This is speaking of religion.
And you surround yourselves about with the sparks. He says to them
in judgment, you walk in the light that you've kindled. And
in the sparks that you have kindled, this you shall have at mine hand.
You shall lie down in sorrow. God's children see out of obscurity,
somewhere between light and darkness. It speaks of that morning light
when we can't actually see the sun, but we see that the sun's
coming. And we long for that sun to shine on us and that sun
to arise with healings in his wings. And what do they see? What do they see? They see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God shines in the hearts
of his people. God himself shines in the hearts
of his people. 2 Corinthians 4. Just let me
read it to you. But if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine upon them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake, because God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Isn't it amazing
to think that there was a time when all the light of all the
universe was just held in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says,
creation be, but his very first words are, universe, so it is exactly in
the spiritual creation of his people. He says, Light be, and
light was, and the light that they see is the light of him. He is the light of the world.
That's what Saul of Tarsus came to when he met that light and
met the Saviour on the Damascus Road, wasn't he? He says, I'm
ruined. I'm now in the dust. All my religious righteousness
is a filthy rag. Everything in my little world
has been turned upside down. No, it wasn't. It was turned
the right side up. I need a mediator. I need a substitute. I need a
sacrifice for my sin. I need a blood atonement. I need, I need exactly what God
has provided. How obscure our view is, how
rare the times when the light of the joy of the Lord shines
brightly. We see out of obscurity, but
we see, brothers and sisters, we see through that obscurity
and we see out of that darkness. And how often we are just made
to cry to our Lord, just send light, just send light again.
I have on my desk, as a little one of those little, she who
gave it to me knows who it is, but I've had it there for 15
years. It says, Thou wilt light my candle. You, God, must light my candle. The Lord my God will enlighten
my darkness. So says the Psalmist of God.
What a glorious sight it is. What a glorious sight this man
in John chapter 9 saw. He saw the Lord as coming. He
saw the Lord as passing by multitudes and coming to him. He saw the
Lord as caring. He saw the Lord as loving. He
saw the Lord as an absolute sovereign. He saw the Lord anointing him.
He came in his perfect time and he came in the perfect circumstances
and he came exactly to where that man was and he came to him
exactly as he was. He didn't say you must do something
to get yourself right with me. You receive my anointing. You
go as I command and you wash. And he came seeing. And then
what was his testimony? isn't it? Lord, I believe. I
just believe. I'm so pleased to say, Lord,
I understand all things now. I just believe. Lord, I believe.
And he worshipped him. The Lord said to Lazarus, come
out. He just says, come out. Lazarus
heard a voice and he saw the one. Nicodemus came out of the darkness
into the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he saw dimly but
he saw correctly Nicodemus. And then the Lord was working
in his life and it took years, didn't it? It took three years
in Nicodemus' life. He was brought out of that light
and he testified that this man was from God. And then in John
chapter 7 he stands up before those religious crowd and he
testifies to his own hurt and his own damage in their midst.
And then finally in John 19 he comes openly into the daylight
of the crucified Saviour and he joined himself with Him to
honour his death, to honour his sacrifice, to honour and bury
the Lord, to all of his own hurt. You can imagine what these Pharisees
in John 9 said to Nicodemus when he came back from his errand
to honour the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast out. These promises are made to the
poor and the needy. Listen to what he goes on to
say. The deaf shall hear, the eyes of
the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek
shall increase their joy. and the poor among men shall
rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Who does God look to? Who does
God look to now? This is a man to whom I look, even
to him that is poor, and contrite of spirit, and trembleth at my
word. Our God gathers to himself the people
who are poor and needy. He says in Psalm 50, David says,
after all those tears, how much did David in all those long,
long months of darkness cry out to God and receive no response? And there was so much obscurity
and so much darkness and he wet his pillow with tears night after
night and he cried out to God and it seems as if God didn't
hear him or care about him. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. That's the promise of God, isn't
it? And David had cried, and he cried out of darkness, and
he was made to be meek, and he was made to be poor, just like
all of God's people. see the death here in this day
of the Lord, and the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord,
and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. What did David say in that lovely
prayer of Psalm 51? He says, Restore unto me the
joy of my salvation. Cause me to see again My life, as Samuel said, is tied
up in the bundle of life with the Lord. While I'm united to
the Lord Jesus Christ, as much as there is darkness, as much
as I see out of obscurity, I'm going to rejoice. I'm going to
rejoice. or it's the command from God
to rejoice in who he is and to rejoice in what he's done. Those
that are meek rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Meekness
is understanding who we are and whose we are. Moses was the meekest
man in all the earth. You ask Pharaoh what a weak man
does and what a meek man does. It is to be broken and contrite
before God. It's to have a heart of stone
removed and softened by the grace of God. It's to know God Himself
in saving grace and saving mercy. It's God causing you to hear
the words of the book, the words that speak of the glories of
the Lord Jesus Christ. To hear God say it is finished. To hear God say that you are
now complete in Him, to hear God say that the law is completely
satisfied, there is now no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus,
is to hear those words. To hear those words is joy. The
meek shall increase their joy in the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the opposite to meekness, of course, is pride, and God opposes
the proud and gives grace to the humble. And in John chapter
9 we encountered the proud, didn't we? They were truly proud, but
they were truly blind, and they were truly ignorant, and they
were truly deaf. They had a religious profession
and they were blind. They had a religious righteousness
before men that was esteemed. And they were blind to what it
was. They had pride of race, and pride of place, and pride
of grace, and pride of understanding. The meek, the meek, those that
are brought down shall increase their joy in the Lord. Meekness in the place of pride. And how is pride, the natural
pride that lives in all of the flesh of all of God's people
in this world? What's the antidote? God speaking
to our deafness. God giving us the light of who
he is and his sovereign power and control and mercy and grace
in all things. That lays the pride of profession
and the pride of knowledge and the pride of attainment low in
the dust. And whatever's required of God
to do it, good on him. He'll do it in his time. These
are promises from Almighty God. He says, shall. We can say it's
done. I just love his description of
himself in Matthew 11. He says, I am meek. Who are you coming to? Come to
me, he says. Come to me. He comes to his own
and then they come to him. Come to me, all you that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
me and learn of me. Learn who I am, for I am meek
and lowly. What an extraordinary description
of God Almighty, who sits on the throne of this universe and
upholds all things now by the word of his power. He says, you
come, you come to one who's meek and lowly and you shall find
rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. Oh how God uses the trials, the
sorrows and trials and temptations and afflictions to bring us down
and to break us down. It's a broken heart. He's got
to break it to bend it. He's got to break it to recreate
it. He's got to break it to make it anew again. How can a broken
... There is only communion between
a broken hearted sinner and a broken hearted Lord. brothers and sisters
is a man of sorrow endured all of this for the joy that set
before him they'll increase in joy they'll increase in joy and
listen to where their joy is it's in the It's in His presence. It's in
the manifestation of His love. It's in the manifestation of
His glorious perfections. It's in the manifestation of
His glorious gospel. It's in the manifestation of
His atoning love that He's made precious to us. The meek shall
increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall
rejoice. Shall rejoice. In the midst of general sleep
and general ignorance and general hypocrisy in religion and perversion
of turning things upside down and open rebellion against God,
there is among them the poor among men. Until you are made
poor, you will rejoice in everything but the Lord. Until you are made
poor, the deaf hear the words of God. The blind see out of
obscurity and darkness. The meek shall also increase
their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel. And what will they see in His
presence? I'll see what he sees. When he
seeth his children, verse 23, the work of mine hands in the
midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, sanctify the Holy One
of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that
erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that
murmured shall learn doctrine, they'll learn from him. These
are the promises of that day of the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly
Father, we do thank you and praise you that you visit people like
the blind man in John chapter 9. You come so often, Heavenly
Father, when people aren't calling out to you. and aren't aware
of your power and your mercy and your grace, and are not aware
of your love for them, that you have loved your people with an
everlasting love, and therefore, Heavenly Father, You draw your
people to yourself, and they will come. They'll come with
weepings, and they'll come with pleadings, and they'll come to
see Him. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
for your sovereign power over all things. We thank you that
what you have done in the past is what you are doing amongst
us in these days, Heavenly Father, and we pray that you would get
glory for your dear and precious son by just granting us to see,
to rejoice, and like the blind man, to say, Lord, I believe
you are the son of God, and worship your dear and precious son. For
we pray in Jesus' name, Heavenly Father, have His glory. Be merciful
to us. Amen. We might close with that
doxology thing.